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JasonDT writes "I just accepted the new terms of service for iTunes and found that I will no longer be allowed to access US iTunes outside of the United States. This may seem like no big deal but, I am a US citizen living abroad and I regularly purchase and view TV and movies from AppleTV. Not to mention US citizens just traveling abroad. Does anyone know if this has been enforced or have themselves been affected by this?"

I bet that the poster of this article is exploring his options, after all, he's not allow to purchase his media legally, so perhaps he would be better served by a free alternative?

I am sure Apple did it only to make someone else happy (labels, investors, foreign governments, us government, etc...) however, it's ridiculous to suggest that this will do anything but increase piracy.

YES I AM BRAZILIAN INFERIOR HUMAN BEING and I had one account with a US address and an itunes card. Shit, I fucking said yes to the EULA or SLA when prompted. GOD DAMN YOU, APPLE! Now I can get no new apps for my iPhone. Oh well, just one more thing: GOD DAMN YOU APPLE! I'm just switching to Android as soon as it's available here in Banana Republics.

You know Spotify has done the same? A fair bit of music is unavailable in several countries due to licensing issues.This isn't Apple, Spotify or any stores fault. It's the music business.Yay for making it easy for consumers to buy music.

What post did you read? Even if Apple excerts pressure on the various companies in the US, it doesn't help them a shit abroad.Let me rephrase my earlier statement: A song that is licenced by Warner in the USA isn't necessarily under Warner licence in other countries. So when iTMS has an agreement with Warner in the US to sell that music, they cannot necessarily sell it in a different country because Warner may not actually have that licence.This has absolutely zip to do with DRM, and a lot to do with licenc

Bought that song on your computer at work? Want to listen to it on your computer at home? Well guess what, charlie, unless you find some obscure bullshit setting in some hidden window in some far off corner of some far off menu in iTunes, $1 more shall go to the Steve.

What??!?!? Do you not know how to transfer a file from one computer to another??? Find the file in your music library, email it to yourself or put it on a thumb drive or whatever, and load it on your home computer. When prompted, input your iTMS account info to get the DRM key to play the file (that is assuming you used a different iTMS account on your work computer than your home computer). Seriously, this "obscure bullshit setting in some hidden window" is just stupid talk.

The DRM serves their profit-driven interests. Bought that song on your computer at work? Want to listen to it on your computer at home? Well guess what, charlie, unless you find some obscure bullshit setting in some hidden window in some far off corner of some far off menu in iTunes, $1 more shall go to the Steve.

What complete and total ass-hattery.

Copying protected iTunes Music from Work to Home only ever required a one-time registration of your home computer, by selecting "Store -> Authorize Computer" from the iTunes menus. iTunes has always allowed you to authorize up to five systems in this way. Once authorized, you can copy the music files between these systems at will. Hardly "obscure" -- it isn't even "buried" in a sub-menu.

So if DRM serves their profit-driven interests, what does the removal of DRM from every song they sell in the iTunes Store serve in your twisted version of reality?

Now please wipe the foam from your mouth. Yes, Apple exists to make a profit. It seems to me that they do so by making products that people want to own for themselves, and by being an advocate for their customers in their dealings with other companies.

BTW, Microsoft's subscription model (which is way heavier on DRM than iTunes ever was) is virtually ignored because most people consider it vastly inferior. Who wants to pay a fee each and every month to listen to music, only to lose all their music should they stop paying? How many times do you feel the need to pay for that copy of Baba O'Riley anyway?

he apple apologists need to seriously STFU with this "it isn't apple's fault!" nonsense. They're partners. Apple is not some holy child that hath cometh down from the mountain to bestow upon the unwashed masses all that is holy and good.

I'd tell you to a heaping spoonful of STFU yourself, but I think you've done Apple enthusiasts everywhere a service by serving as a quintessential example of knee-jerk Apple Critic. You certainly don't know what you're talking about with regards to how the DRM works, you seem to be ignorant of Apple's actions and stated intentions with regard to said DRM, you seem to have reflexively confused licensing issues with DRM issues, and you seem generally confused about the value and state of other players in the marketplace.

Exhibit A:

"Bought that song on your computer at work? Want to listen to it on your computer at home? Well guess what, charlie, unless you find some obscure bullshit setting in some hidden window in some far off corner of some far off menu in iTunes, $1 more shall go to the Steve."

Anyone who's ever used iTunes on more than a single computer knows there's a simple solution to this problem. It doesn't involve an obscure menu, in fact, iTunes will *prompt* you for the necessary information as soon as you try to play the song.

Exhibit B:

A moments of thought would reveal that the geographic restrictions on purchases have little to do with DRM and everything to do with licensing, since DRM (on music anyway) isn't tied to a region, and isn't the technology used in restricting the purchase at any rate.

Exhibit C:

"Why do you think people don't use amazon?"

They do, actually. Their MP3 store launched a year and a half ago and sell about 10% of what iTunes does. Some estimates place them as the #2 digital retailer:

Furthermore, that figure almost certainly represents sales mostly taken from iTunes. Almost every iPod/iTunes user I know has switched.

Exhibit D:

"Or why microsoft's VASTLY superior subscription model is ignored?"

I can see value in a subscription model, I've participated in Rhapsody and Satellite Radio before. But at the end of the day, many people -- apparently more people -- happily choose ownership of their selection of media rather than ongoing rent to access to a broader selection, so it's not particularly clear that it's a vastly superior model.

Overall, it appears that the purpose of your post is really to express some ill-defined anger at Apple as a company or to project a straw-man image of people who buy and enjoy their products.

It certainly isn't to express well-considered criticism of some of the company's practices.

not where you were born. When I was an American living and working in Germany, I was subject to the laws of Germany. I couldn't download a browser with more than 40-bit encryption at the time due to export regulations. Yes I was an American citizen, but I wasn't in the united states.Now, if you are working on behalf of the US government at a diplomatic consulate/mission or in the military, then you may have a gripe, and I believe Apple should do something to work with you. Especially if your billing is to an APO address.

Just because I'm american and we are allowed the freedom of speech inside the US doesn't mean I can have a copy of Mein Kampf in Germany.

It also is quite wrong. It is legal to own "Mein Kampf" in Germany. It is not legal to sell, give or even show it to somebody else. It is also illegal to purchase it as far as I know.Possession however is fine.

Yeah, it breaks down like this: it's illegal to buy it, it's legal to own it but, if you're the proprietor of a kampf bar, it's legal to sell it. It's legal to carry it, which doesn't really matter 'cause â" get a load of this â" if the cops stop you, it's illegal for them to search you.

It is neither of those. The copyright to mein kampf and other Nazi works fell to the state of bavaria, which by copyright simply doesnt allow any copying of mein kampf and hasnt since the second world war. If you happen to have one of the old copies from the WW2, or you bought it a state that doesnt reckognize avarias copyright on it, youre perfectly fine to do anything you want with it. Of course, there are several anti-nazi-agitation laws and selling the book on ebay may invoke some of those laws, but theres nothing specific to this one book and applies to all nazi memorabilia.

I don't think the submitter is complaining that what iTunes is doing is illegal (or that he should be subject to US law while abroad). I think he is complaining that what iTunes is doing is stupid.

He wants to be a customer. He wants to give them money. But they (iTunes, or whichever content providers require this rule) want to restrict things regionally. These regional restrictions are inconvenient, arbitrary, and illogical in an age of ubiquitous global network connectivity, and easy trans-national travel. Someone abroad can circumvent the restrictions easily with a proxy. Conversely a US citizen on a trip abroad is denied access (whereas it would have been fine if they had downloaded it while in the US and carried it on their computer on the plane). Thus it doesn't seem that the rule accomplishes its nominal goal. Actually for the most part the nominal goal isn't even clear. In short, the restrictions are silly.

Of course it is within iTune's ability (technical and legal) to impose such restrictions. But it just seems illogical, since anywhere that the content is not available through a legitimate source (or available but only after a substantial delay) will simply increase the amount of circumvention (proxy, file sharing, etc.). So why don't these companies want the money being offered to them?

Is it itunes fault is country laws(USA Germany, France,etc) forbid such things ? Just because you Are an American doesn't give you the right to playmusic, videos, even newspapers that are banned in the country your currenrtly in.

He wants to be a customer. He wants to give them money. But they (iTunes, or whichever content providers require this rule) want to restrict things regionally.

In some cases yes, in many cases its not that they WANT to restrict things, its that they HAVE to.

If Warner owns song X in the US, and Sony owns it Brazil, then no matter how much Warner wants to sell you the song in Brazil they CAN'T. And if Sony owns it but doesn't want to sell it, or wants to sell it but charge more than Warner, that's life. Warner can't do squat about it except say, hey, come to the US and buy a copy while you are actually here.

In the case I describe Warner isn't trying to restrict things regionally, but don't own the rights to distribute the song in Brazil, and someone else does, so they just can't.

Thats right, welcome to the 21st century where multinationals go out of their way to regionalise and decomoditise what they sell, while globalising and comoditising what you sell.

You'll be competing with Indian and Chineese workers as far as labour goes (with generic requirements), but don't worry you will still be paying western prices for goods and services, all of which will lock you in to a specific vendor.

Mercantilism, it's back baby, except this time instead of governments, it's corporations!

I dont agree that upper management doesnt "get" the information age. Instead, they understand it plenty, knowing that they can bilk extra money out of unsuspecting fools who dont use sites like ThePirateBay.

Yes, there are strong copyright laws, but they are a restriction to free trade, which exists in the numerous pirate hubs and sneakernets and darknets. Because of that, digital media will always approach 0 in cost, regardless how much cost was incurred in making that media. That's just capitalism in actio

Welcome to the state of copyright law around the world. You (and the submitter) may think that Apple is being stupid, but they're complying with the legal framework in which they operate. Whether these laws should change is another story. And even if they do change to better reflect the networked world we live in, it won't happen overnight.

O RLY?

So why does Google give a big FUCK YOU to book publishers or MIAA/MPAA in youtube?

Apple does as it does not because of copyright; they have the clout to fight that shit; they just don't want to do it while they can fuck their customers instead.

I couldn't download a browser with more than 40-bit encryption at the time due to export regulations. Yes I was an American citizen, but I wasn't in the united states.

Actually, the law you would've broken was a US law, there's a reason lots of software that contained encryption was written in a way that allowed it to ship without the encryption, so that europeans and others could use the encryption module/plugin/component coded outside the US.

Also, I think this move is partly to stop non-americans from getting US iTunes accounts so that they can buy movies and TV shows (yeah, are you listening Apple? We're still waiting!).

not where you were born. When I was an American living and working in Germany, I was subject to the laws of Germany. I couldn't download a browser with more than 40-bit encryption at the time due to export regulations...

I don't think you would have broken any German laws by downloading a 41bit browser. And I don't think you would have broken the US export laws if you downloaded your 41bit browser from a country other than the US. For example one of the Russian plugins that were available for Netscape at the time, or where an American company printed out the source code, mailed it to Europe and had it scanned in and re-compiled.

The issue is that Apple doesn't have a license to distribute in Germany. It's not German law, it's international law (copyrights via the Berne Convention.)

The short of it is that distribution is a right which is automatically reserved by default to the copyright holder. The copyright holder, then, can authorize another party to distribute--and they can put terms on it. Generally, the terms include regions where they can distribute the material. Again, it's

As someone who has visited Australia several times over the past few years, I'm wondering why the Aussies would want to travel overseas.

Bored with the moderate weather in NSW? Move to QLD.Bored with the stoner culture around southern coastal QLD? Move to SA.Want better wines? Move to WA.Want to get away from civilization? Move to the NT.Want to get away from the oppressive heat? Move to Victoria.

Welcome to the dismantling of the internet. If you have the slightest knowledge of how media cartels work, not just American ones but World wide, then you know it was just a matter of time before market segmentation reared its ugly head onto the web. Google is not exempt either, they've been IP filtering their early days.

If you have the slightest knowledge of how media cartels work, not just American ones but World wide, then you know it was just a matter of time before market segmentation reared its ugly head onto the web.

And that time was right around when RFC 1591 was adopted, fifteen years ago. What other reason for ccTLDs could there be -- for television shows to contribute to the Tuvan economy by reserving a vanity *.tv domain?

The Internet may be the same all over, but the laws its users are compelled to abide by are

A lot of the internet access is contracted out. Often deployed personnel get the Italian or Germain versions of google and will have a problem with itunes thinking they are in the country where the sat downlink(and thus ip address range) is located.

This has nothing to do with being an USA citizen and all about where you are geographically located. If you have a credit card registered to a USA address, then you can buy quite happily from the US store (Apple isn't going to know the real story), but not if you have a non-USA address. This policy has been in place since day 1 of the iTunes store, and is in place because of the distribution rights set in place by the record companies, so in reality this is a non-story.

This policy is not new. It has been around for at least a year. But I live outside the US (and I am a US citizen... not that it matters in this case) and I still regularly purchase and download and watch TV shows and movies on iTunes. In fact, it is the only software that lets me do this. Amazon and other alternatives disable their service outside the US.

Amazon even disables their service within the US if you don't use a US credit card. (I can walk into any record store in the US while on vacation and buy a CD or DVD using my credit card, but I can't buy songs or videos from Amazon because I don't have a US billing address. How silly.)

It's cheap, DRM-less, and easy. And it doesn't install a helper application into your browser, just waiting for someone to figure out how to slide an exploit into a ".amz" file.

For Safari under Leopard, to remove that erroneous tagging of ".amz" as "safe" (there's no such thing as a "safe" file), remove the entry from ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.DownloadAssessment.plist .

It's cheap, DRM-less, and easy. And it doesn't install a helper application into your browser, just waiting for someone to figure out how to slide an exploit into a ".amz" file.

What are you talking about? Amazon doesn't install anything in my browser; you download a separate application. And what makes an amz file less safe than any other file? It's a document, not an application. And it's being served by amazon.com -- or does your scenario involve malicious hackers taking over amazon.com too?

1. Someone figures out that if you put "#!No matter how thin you slice it, it's still baloney." followed by 447 nulls and "1060 West Addison Street - Chicago" into a.amz file and pass it to the Amazon downloader it opens up a gateway to hell in your hard disk. Anyone can put up a ".amz" file for downloading anywhere and the helper application will run it as soon as you follow the link. You lose.

I agree with this post. After getting "shuffled" by songs my wife bought on itunes, I searched for months for a easy/legal/open/fair music solution. I don't want to be a Amazon fanboy, but they have a "fair" system that doesn't lock out any competing OS's.
The amazon mp3 let you download a single song without installing anything on your PC.
Here's my music solution:
OS: Debian GNU Linux - i'm running Lenny
Music Manager: Rythmbox - comes with Debian
Online Music: Amazon mp3 - artist get paid some, but no D

The last time I was presented with the "agreement" for the iTunes store, I pulled up a terminal and ran wc on it. It was 4,931 words long, not including referenced agreements. You can go buy a CD at a store with out signing a contract, much less one nearly 5,000 words long.

It contained all manor of claims of how Apple could unilaterally change the terms for purchased music and required that you "agree to agree" to future terms.

Having taken some contract law courses ( but IANAHPAADL - I am not a highly paid Apple attack dog lawyer), much of it seemed unconscionable. Specifically, consideration from Apple (ability to play already purchased songs, access the store, etc.) seems weak-to-non-existent in light of the fact that it can be arbitrarily revoked according to the terms.

Also, I am generally an Apple fan, but this is one area where I think they are really out of control.

A friend of mine ordered the MLB.TV video streaming package, then had to spend most of the baseball season in China. After he tried unsuccessfully to use the service, he contacted MLB.TV's tech support, and although 1st layer support was no help, he eventually worked his way up to someone who was able to grant him access.
Obviously, since Apple doesn't own the music, they might be less flexible. Doesn't cost anything other than time to try.

If you have another mac in the USA, enable remote ssh logins into it. (Or really, any server that accepts ssh, but since you fell for the Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field, I'll assume you're on a mac, and you know others with macs in the USA).

In terminal,
ssh -D 1080 example.com

In network preferences,
Configure your network settings to use a socks proxy on 127.0.0.1:1080

Now, Safari and iTunes both will be browsing *via* example.com, working around any geolocation features Apple and other companies may be using. This setting is principally only honored by Apple apps; it won't affect Firefox for example (though you can configure Firefox to use a socks proxy).

I just tried and American iTunes Store is still not blocked in Europe at least. I somehow fail to see that I'm doing something criminal when I buy music and shows from American iTunes using "gift cards", instead of pirating the goods from a torrent site, which would have been the only viable alternative.

The biggest problem with this is for those of us who are US citizens living in US territories. We use US currency, we pay federal taxes, we get our mail through the US post office, but because we are territories and not part of the Mainland US we get screwed on so many different services. Itunes, Netflix, ebay, try ordering any software with even the smallest bit of encryption on it through Amazon in the territories and see the order fail to go through. try getting digital downloads from most places and the

Actually, I got the message that iTMS was not to be used from outside of the US months ago (I live in Japan). They said they might check. Thus far, they haven't. I wouldn't worry about it.

Also, Amazon MP3 won't sell to me anymore, although they do for my friends. I had to buy a book for work from the US site and registered my Japanese credit card (my work can only reimburse expenditures made in yen), and then, like magic, Amazon MP3 stopped working. I've even tried making a new account with a different US credit card, and yet Amazon now knows I'm in Japan, but doesn't know that my buddy down the street, who has only ever used his US credit card with the US site, is as well.

I absolutely hate pirating music. I reject it on ethical grounds, and I hate tracks being mis-labeled (I have never entered track names by myself--who are these people who can't spell who are entering ID3 tags on pirated songs???) and having no control over the bitrate I get, and the album art requiring looking and futzing... It's just a shitty way to get music for all involved.

But when I'm not even allowed to buy it online (except for on CD--which I still do for music I really, really like, so I can rip it lossless), what's a boy to do?

The world was looking so pretty, without all those borders... Why do companies and governments need to redraw them through technological means? The promise of the internet is being quashed everywhere you look...

Considering I just tried downloading two free app's and was told I was not allowed to "purchase" the free app from the Canadian store, I'm sure Canada is excluded here too.

One was a drinks and cocktails recipe sorta thing and another equally as odd.. why the hell would an app like that get blocked? I KINDA get stuff like Pandora being blocked (same with Hulu and such on the web)... but how does free lowkey apps fit in?

What do you have to say about Apple's warm and fuzzy user-friendly DRM now?

I say "I just upgraded three tracks from Joe Hisaishi's soundtrack to "Kikujiro" to iTunes Plus", what do you expect me to say? I should refuse to take advantage of the fact that Apple finally got the labels to agree to let them finish removing the cold and prickly DRM from the trackes they're licensing?

What do you have to say about Apple's warm and fuzzy user-friendly DRM now?

Never liked the DRM much, but for a while, even with its encumbrances, it was still one of the most convenient ways to get music online, and it was certainly one of the most convenient legit ways -- in other words, it met a certain set of requirements very well.

Personally, I mostly ditched the iTunes store after a few computer failures which meant I was using up the number of times I could authorize a given machine... and finding Ama

Either they're not checking or the credit card company isn't allowed to disclose the customer's address without a court order, as my canadian card works fine.

But they can turn on the Address Verification System (AVS). You would have to enter your address into the "billing address" fields. While processing the transaction, they can request that the payment provider verify the address. If it doesn't match, they can reject the payment.

By making those fields mandatory, they'll force you to declare the coun

I don't think you understand how SSH tunneling works. One can essentially setup a VPN with SSH tunneling. SSH to the US located system and with tunneling all of your traffic is routed through it thus presenting a source IP that's in the US to iTunes.

Okay, I'm interested.Does it present a list of remote machines or do I have to come up with one? I never liked the idea of US-only stuff, but now that I live in Chile it's affecting me directly. Stupid media companies.Thanks!